The present invention relates to vacuum or pressed molded fiber products that may be formed into decorative backgrounds, figurines, and toys that may be placed in a birdcage or other small animal cage to provide a more stimulating environment for the animal while making the cage more attractive and interesting to the pet owner.
Many household pets, such as birds, hamsters, gerbils, mice, and others, live in a cage of one sort or another. Such animals must be caged, not only to prevent the animal from taking flight, but also to protect the animal from domestic predators such as the family cat. Most household pet cages are exposed on all sides so that the animal is viewed from many different angles. While such visibility and openness is conducive to the pet owner's enjoyment of the animal, it can be very detrimental to the animal itself, especially for animals that are naturally prey. Most prey animals' natural instinct is to fly or take cover when danger such as a cat, dog, new person or a child that walks by a cage too fast is near. Unfortunately, these options are not available to an animal living in an exposed cage. This constant exposure to what most animals would consider a perilous situation can be very stressful on a small pet. In birds, this can often be a cause of feather picking and sometimes biting.
Another detriment to the confirmed living conditions of household pets is the lack of both physical and mental stimulation. Living in the wild provides most animals with sufficient stimuli to maintain their mental and physical edge. In the daily routine of a house pet, however, most natural sources stimulation are removed, and the tendencies toward boredom and lethargy easily occur. Therefore, the caring pet owner, in addition to providing some form of refuge within the animal's cage, will also attempt to provide the pet with mental and physical stimuli. Pet mice, for example, are often provided with an exercise wheel to run on for both pleasure and aerobic exercise.
Unfortunately, it is often more difficult to provide adequate mental and physical stimuli for birds. Most birdcages are generally too small for full-fledged flight, and birds can not use exercise wheels. However, pecking, chewing, and tearing at objects is an instinctual activity that provides both mental and physical stimulation for caged birds, and is an activity which can be safely carried out in the birdcage. Thus, providing various objects within a bird's cage that encourage pecking, chewing and tearing will go a long way in improving both the physical and emotional well being of the bird.
A difficulty in providing a suitable toy is providing an object that will attract the bird's attention and induce beak activity. Another consideration is the hardness of the object provided. The pecking toy must be soft enough that the bird will not damage its beak, yet hard enough to offer sufficient resistance to make the experience both challenging and rewarding.
The same type of objects that are well suited for birds to chew will be well suited for other small pets as well. Rodents have an instinctual need to chew. Thus, toys placed within a mouse or gerbil cage expressly for this purpose will fulfill this natural desire.
Many animal toys are available for providing stimulus to caged animals. U.S. Pat. No. 1,791,175, for example, is representative of such toys. There, birdseed is compressed into a solid mass and fashioned into an object such as a bell. The compressed mass may further include a toy such as an actual bell suspended therefrom.
In another example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,423,290 provides a nesting facility for parakeets. The nesting facility comprises a hard cylindrical shell surrounding a relatively soft nesting material. By pecking at the soft inner material the parakeet may partially hollow out the cylindrical shell to form a nest.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,964,438 discloses a food blanket for animals such as hamsters and gerbils. A pad comprising multiple layers of synthetic material is provided having pet food dispersed between the various layers. The animal is enticed to forage through the pad in order to obtain the food hidden therein.
Yet another bird toy is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,022,345. There, various elements are joined on a string or chain suspended from the top of a birdcage. The various elements comprising the toy are wood, a bell, rawhide, hemp, beads, leather and plastic.
While the prior art contains numerous examples of toys for caged house pets, the present invention provides a unique combination of aesthetic qualities pleasing to both the pet owner and the occupant of the cage along with the utilitarian function of providing a peckable or chewable object which may be safely consumed by a small animal.